Tenth Floor
by exocara
Summary: (AU) It is said that you could enter another world using an elevator. Eren didn't believe it. That was, until he tried the ritual and passed out, only to find himself in the house of a man named Levi... De-anon from the snk kink meme. One-shot, COMPLETE!


**Probably a bit ooc because it's an au and also I haven't been in the snk fandom for a very long time**

* * *

Prompt from dreamwidth:  
 _In which Eren plays the Elevator Game._ _Anyway, the official rules say you won't meet any living beings, but I've heard accounts saying that it's a spirit realm and you can and will meet non-living beings. I'd like to see Levi as some sort of spirit in the elevator world. Whether he's trying to help Eren get back or whether he's trying to keep him there is up to you. Smut okay, but shouldn't be the focus._

Deanoning from kinkmeme. Thought I'd finish this since I finally found the old file and could start writing again.

* * *

Eren didn't believe in spirits. He didn't believe in anything supernatural, period, not even as a young child. Alright, there might've been a time in which he claimed to have a spirit best friend but hey, don't all children go through that? Other than that little incident, Eren could proudly say that he wasn't involved in anything weird. Therefore, when his group of friends wanted to prove some urban myth wrong, he naturally volunteered.

It seemed so simple back then. Go into the elevator, press a bunch of buttons, and wait.

Jean and Marco lived in an apartment complex with twelve floors, so the place of the experiment was set. All he had to do was play the damn elevator game and then meet his friends at Jean and Marco's apartment.

Eren stepped into the lift and the doors closed behind him. He pressed the button with the number four on it and the lift slowly ascended. There was nothing out of the ordinary, and Eren couldn't help but feel a little disappointed despite his disbelief. _Hello_ , he was conducting a dimension breaching ritual here, shouldn't he at least feel _something_?

The lift reached the fourth floor. Right, okay. Next floor was second floor, followed by sixth, then second again, then tenth… It was a little annoying, waiting for the lift to slowly climb to the tenth floor. Eren could only count his lucky stars that no one came into the lift. He clearly remembered the rules; if someone entered the lift while you were doing the ritual, it wouldn't work. That meant Eren had to start the whole thing again from the first floor.

Eren wasn't exactly the most patient person around.

Finally, the lift reached the tenth floor. Now he had to go to the fifth floor. If he wasn't wrong, a girl or a woman, the instructions hadn't been very clear on that, would join him in the elevator soon. If no one joined him on the fifth floor, he would call this urban myth a dud and go join his friends.

"Fifth floor," the automated voice of the elevator sounded. Eren was ready to exit the lift when, suddenly, a female figure walked in. Eren stilled. From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of shoulder length orange hair, before quickly averting his eyes when the lady turned towards him. The warning stated in the instructions echoed in his head.

 _That woman is not human. Don't talk or look at the girl. If you do, she'll take you away._

Eren suddenly became very aware of the stifling silence in the elevator. He stared at the buttons, mind blank.

"Are you not going to press ten?" the lady asked. Eren jerked out of his daze and almost turned to look at her, almost replied to her question, but the question sunk in and he froze. How did she know?

When there was no further movement from Eren, he heard the lady sigh. "Oh well," she said, a note of disappointment in her voice, "you guys are always like this. Always chickening out at the last moment. Am I really that scary?"

Eren didn't actually listen past the part where she said 'chickening out', immediately hitting the button to the tenth floor. Armin always said that he was too easily riled up for his own good. But now that the lift was climbing up to the tenth floor, Eren's pride wouldn't allow him to quit the game-ritual-thing halfway.

"Tenth floor," came the automated voice. The door opened and Eren peered out. It looked exactly like the apartment building he was in, but there was a few differences. For one, all the lights were off. The other was that the place was too silent. Unnaturally silent.

From the lift, Eren couldn't exactly see the sky and hence he had absolutely no idea what colour it was. Not wanting to go back to his friends without giving actual confirmation, he stepped out of the lift. "Where are you going?" the lady called out after him, but Eren didn't answer. As the lift door closed, he could've sworn that he heard her laugh softly and mutter about someone being pleased, but he didn't pay her any attention. All he had to do was find a place where he could see the sky, take a picture of said sky with his phone, and get the hell away from this creepy place.

Right, so there's a spot with a fairly good view of the sky somewhere round here. Just turn to the right and…

The world spun and Eren Jaeger fell to the floor in a dead faint.

* * *

 _"What are you?"_

 _"I'm the tooth fairy. What the fuck do you think I am, brat?"_

 _"A ghost! Armin has many books about ghosts. But then, they're not friendly like you…"_

 _"Believe me, I'm not a friendly ghost."_

* * *

Eren woke up in bed. In the darkness, it took him a while to realise that he wasn't in his room but before he could panic, the door to the room opened and light filled the room. The light was a little strange, the colour was off, but Eren ignored it in favour of dealing with the irritating pounding in his head. What happened?

Someone entered the room. Eren looked up upon hearing footsteps and saw a short man with pitch black hair and sharp grey eyes staring at him intensely. Something about him made Eren instantly wary, made Eren want to run, as if that man was a hunter and Eren was prey. But of course, Eren dismissed those feelings. It was nonsensical and irrational, right? The man wasn't dangerous, _right_?

"So, you're finally awake." The silence was abruptly shattered by the man's deadpan words. Eren flushed red and tried to scramble out of the bed, mouth open and full of apologies about to spill out, when the man held out a hand to silence him. He then walked towards the bed and pushed Eren back down.

"Relax, brat. I found you jamming up the corridor so I decided to drag your sorry ass in to free up the space." He dragged a chair from nearby to the side of the bed and sat in it. "So tell me, who are you and what're doing in the hallway?"

"Um," Eren fidgeted with the blanket on top of him, "My name is Eren Jaeger and I was… My friends and I were…" He frowned. What _had_ they been doing? He could remember that he didn't think it was very important at that time but other than that…

"It's alright if you can't remember. Here, drink this. It'll help you with your headache." The man holds out a cup of warm tea - or at least Eren thought it tasted like tea. The man drank from his own cup as well and a slightly uncomfortable silence fell upon them. While Eren was drinking, a strange thought entered his mind.

 _Hey, where did the cups com-_

"My name's Levi and, as you should already know if you have at least half a brain, you're in my house," the man – Levi – said suddenly, cutting Eren's train of thought. For half a second, Eren tried to recollect it but it was well gone by then. Well, it probably wasn't that important anyway.

"Ah, sorry for intruding. Thanks for helping me, I probably should go now." Eren flashed a grateful smile and moved to leave the bed. At that same moment, Levi's hand shot out and curled around Eren's wrist in a tight vice.

"Shitty brat, you're nowhere near recovered enough to be moving about." Eren twitched.

"Why're you calling me a brat? I'm not much younger than you!" he protested. Levi looked at him, unimpressed.

"I'm thirty-five."

"Well, and I'm- wait, what?!" Eren gaped at him. Levi raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? You thought that I was younger? Why?" There was a look in his eyes that Eren really did not like. It was a challenge and warning all bundled up together. Eren gulped. _This is how I die._

"Well, I mean, you're kinda short…" Eren trailed off upon seeing Levi glaring at him. _Yeah I'm gonna die._

Levi lifted his hand up and Eren immediately winced, closing his eyes. He heard a sigh and, when there was no further movement, he gingerly opened his eyes. Levi was sitting there with a decidedly annoyed look on his face. Eren wisely shut up and gave him a sheepish smile. Levi gave another sigh and stood up, taking with him the cups.

"You should get some more rest. I'm going to go wash the dishes." With that, Levi was out of the room and Eren was left alone in the silent darkness. He fumbled around for his phone and pulled it out. The bright screen shone in the darkness for all of two seconds before flickering out. Eren swore under his breath. The battery was supposed to be at full power, dammit! He purposely made sure that was the case because today he had to… he had to…

 _Elevator._

Eren stumbled out of bed and towards the curtains, pulling them back with no small amount of force. He took a step back.

"No… This…"

The sky was red, like it was dawn or dusk, but Eren was sure his phone had displayed the time to be three in the afternoon before it died. Also, there was no sun nor clouds in the sky, just an eternal stretch of unsettling vivid red.

Eren dragged his gaze to the skyline. It was dark, no, it was black. Pitch black buildings silhouettes against the sky, with no source of light to be seen apart from the sky. It was also incredibly silent, there were no birds chirping, no usual sounds of vehicles driving on the road, not even the wind rustling through the trees. No movement, no sound, no light, no _life_. It was unnerving, unsettling, bone-chilling–

He needed to _leave_.

* * *

" _What? You're leaving?"_

" _Yeah. Are you really this stupid or is it just with me?"_

" _Like, forever?"_

 _Irritation. "Yes. Forever."_

" _Is there really no way you can stay?"_

 _A sigh. "Brat, I only can stay with a human if the human were to become my bride."_

" _Then I'll be your bride!"_

 _An unimpressed look. "Do you even know what you're saying?"_

" _Yeah! Like in Snow White, the princess marries the prince because she loves him! I love you, so I should marry you!"_

 _Contemplative silence._

" _Of course not now, but when I'm fifteen? That was when Snow White got married too!"_

" _Alright then, don't you forget this promise."_

" _Wait!" A kiss. "Mummy does that to daddy whenever he leaves because they love each other!"_

 _Stunned silence, a small smile. "Not bad, for a shitty brat."_

* * *

Where was the elevator? Eren could've sworn that it was in this very corridor! He'd been to Jean and Marco's apartment complex a million times, he should know where the lift was? And was it just him, or did the corridors grow longer? They kept stretching on and on, like a never-ending tunnel of darkness.

Wait, was that laughter? A child's laughter? Please let it just be his imagination.

…

Nope, it wasn't. It really was a child's laughter. Fuck the lift, Eren was taking the stairs down. He was so out of here.

As he opened the door to the stairway, a hand wrapped around his wrist, restraining him.

"Where are you going, Jaeger?" Eren could feel warm breath on his skin. The hand on his wrist tightened, and Eren knew that it would leave a bruise.

When Eren didn't answer, Levi spun him around and violently shoved him back. Eren's head hit the wall and he grit his teeth to prevent himself from yelping in pain.

"I'll only repeat myself once. Where are you going, _Eren_?"

"I-I'm leaving," Eren's voice shook. "I don't care where I'm going, as long as it's away from here."

Levi narrowed his eyes. "That's not allowed. You made a promise and you should stick to it."

"What promise?"

"A promise to be my bride." Levi looked unimpressed. "Did you forget about it?"

"I… I don't know what you're talking about." Eren tried to twist out of Levi's hold but he wasn't able to.

"It doesn't change the fact that you made a promise."

"Let go of me!" Eren brought his head down and it met Levi's with a loud crack. It was enough to surprise Levi into loosening his grip and Eren took the chance to push him away and tore down the corridor. His head felt heavy and the corridor around him seemed to be spinning but Eren didn't stop. He had to get to the elevator, the instructions had clearly stated that he needed to use the same elevator if he wanted to get back to his world.

Footsteps echoed behind him, getting louder and louder, closer and closer. Eren sped up but he didn't seem to be going any faster.

"You're not supposed to leave, Eren! You're _mine_ , dammit!"

Eren didn't bother to answer. He could see the lift in front of him and it was aglow with bright light, a stark contrast to the world around it. He all but stumbled into the elevator and repeatedly jabbed at the close button, not resting even when the doors had slid shut. With shaking hands, he quickly pressed the button signifying the fourth floor. When the elevator reached the fourth floor, he jabbed the close button again as he pressed the button for the second floor. He had to continue with six, then two again, ten, finally five, similar to how he had started. Once he reached the fifth floor, he pressed 'one'.

To his horror, the lift started to rise again, evidently going back to the tenth floor. His heart in his throat, Eren hastily pressed 'eight' in order to intercept the lift. The door opened at the eighth floor and Eren started again.

Four, two, six, two, ten, five, one…

 _No!_ Eren stared at the display in horror. The lift was rising again.

Cancelling the lift's ascent, Eren repeated.

Four, two, six, two…

The lift continued to rise, despite Eren trying the sequence again and again. His heart was beating rapidly and his palms sweaty. His entire body trembled violently as he punched the button that had 'nine' on it. How many more times did he have to repeat that sequence? How long more did he have to spend here?

His knees were weak but he didn't allow himself to collapse, not yet. He wasn't out of this place, so he could rest here.

Four, two, six, two…

Eren bit back a sob when the lift started ascending once again. He could hear Levi's voice in his head.

Four, two, six, two…

The world seemed a little out of focus and his head stuffed with cotton. There was black around the edges of his vision and his arms felt heavy, hard to control. Still, he persisted.

Four, two, six, two…

He could hear the short and shallow puffs of his breath. There was a strange ringing in his ears.

Four, two, six, two…

The lift… started to descend. Slowly, Eren's head stopped hurting and he regained control of his body. His mind became clearer and he could almost cry with relief. He was finally getting out of that world!

The lift doors opened and lift poured in. The familiar sound of birds chirping and the muted background buzz of people's chatter met his ears. Filled with relief, Eren took one step towards the lift doors.

The world went black.

Eren's eyes snapped open and he immediately scrambled out of the bed he was lying on and to the nearest window. Peering out, he saw blue skies and the sun, green trees, a road with cars and people and _not inky black darkness against a crimson red sky_.

As he regained his calm, he looked around to see that he was in his own room.

The door opened and Eren spun around to face it, quickly grabbing the thing closest to him – a heavy hardcover book – as a weapon. To his immense relief, however, it was only Mikasa who stepped in.

"Oh, you're up," she commented. "Go and get dressed, we have to pick up Armin before we go to Jean's house."

Eren laughed nervously and hastily set the book back down on his desk. "Is it to play the elevator game?" he asked. Mikasa looked at him uncomprehendingly.

"The elevator game?" she asked. Eren stared at her for a while and realised that she really had no idea what he was talking about. Had it all been just a dream?

"It's nothing, just a strange dream I had," Eren eventually answered. Mikasa nodded unsurely but ultimately decided to leave the subject alone.

"Just go get dressed. We're leaving soon," she said and exited the room, leaving Eren by himself. Eren went over to his closet and opened it to pick out his clothes.

"Eren."

Eren froze up, the shirt he held in his hands slipping out of his grasp and falling onto the floor. The soft 'thump' it made drew Eren's attention to it and he bent down to pick it up, pretending he hadn't heard the familiar voice.

His hands were shaking.

"I know you can hear me, you shitty brat. _Don't. Ignore. Me._ "

Slowly, Eren looked up and into the mirror mounted in the inside of his closet. His breath caught when he saw the unmistakeable image of Levi standing behind him.

"How…?"

"You forgot to exit the lift, Eren. You're still mine."

 _If you were to faint in the process and wake up to find yourself in your own house, there's a high chance that you'll be taken back to the world again._

"No." Eren shook his head as he backed away from the mirror. "No, no, _no_ …"

Someone knocked on his door. "Eren? What's wrong?" Mikasa called through the door.

"…" Eren took a deep breath. "I'm fine, Mikasa. I'll be out soon," he said and was proud that his voice didn't shake.

"Alright then. Hurry up."

Numbly, Eren stared at his hands.

"You can go and have your fun today, Eren, because you'll be mine when you return," Levi said with deceptive sweetness. Eren didn't answer, mind reeling from Levi's words. Automatically, he started to change into new clothes. There really wasn't any escape for him, he realised. Eren would be going back _there_ whether he liked it or not. There was really no use in wasting what little time he had left thinking about his situation. He had to make do with what little time he had left.

Today, he was going to tell Marco that he's a great guy and a wonderful leader. Tell Jean that underneath it all, Eren really appreciated their friendship. Tell Armin that he's the smartest person Eren has ever met, and that he would definitely go far in life. Tell Sasha, tell Connie, tell Reiner, tell Bertholdt…

He finished dressing himself and stepped out of his room. Mikasa was already waiting for him at the door. As always, she clicked her tongue and walked over to him to fuss over his messy hair, his unbuttoned collar, his rumbled shirt, just like a mother would to her child. Unlike the other times, however, Eren did not blow up at her or even get annoyed by her fussing. He merely stood still and let her worry over him. When she pulled away, having straightened Eren up, he gave her a warm smile.

He didn't have much time left in this world, so he should probably start now.

"Mikasa, you're the best sister I've ever had. Thank you for everything. I love you."

* * *

 **Author's notes**

At this point I really just want to read the story I'm writing. Without writing it.

Petra's the girl in the lift btw.

how to write levi orz


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